Manhunt underway for 'sex attacker' of eight-year-old girl in French campsite

A police manhunt was underway in southern France on Wednesday following the suspected sex attack of an eight-year-old girl at a campsite.

The apparent rape has rekindled painful memories of a previous string of sex attacks in campsites in the area.

More than 20,000 British people travel by car to the Ardèche every year, many to take advantage of the cheap accommodation at some 337 campsites.

Police stepped in after the parents of a Dutch girl aged 8 reported that she was sexually assaulted in her tent at night.

She was on holiday with her family at the Vieux Pont campsite in Saint-Alban-Auriolles in the Ardèche region of southern France, a popular spot for British and other foreign tourists as well as French campers.

The apparent attack came as the campsites are full at the height of the summer season.

The girl was reportedly asleep alone in her own tent on Monday night when her screams were heard at around 2am, prosecutors in the town of Privas told AFP news agency.

Details were still sketchy because the girl had still not been interviewed by police, but the Privas prosecutor said a medical examination carried out shortly after the incident showed signs that she had been "physically molested recently".

The results of further tests are due.

In all around 35 officers are involved in the hunt, with local gendarmes dispatched to the scene along with reinforcements from Grenoble.

The entrance of a campsite in Saint-Didier-sous-Aubenas, France in area where rapist Sébastien Dutheil carried out sexual assaults on five girls between 2010 and 2012Credit:
AFP

The sexual assaults also took place at night time with young girls aged between the age of six and 17.

The rapes rocked the local community in this hilly, rural corner of France, which welcomes around 270,000 visitors each year, a quarter of whom are foreign tourists.

Campsites stepped up security until police finally caught the rapist.

Sébastien Dutheil, a French divorcee aged in his 30s, admitted to having attacked a string of children in five campsites. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison and is still incarcerated.

On Wednesday, one customer at the Vieux Port campsite told France Télévisions: "We say to ourselves everything's fine, nothing will happen here, but in fact you need to be permanently vigilant."

The owner of another nearby small campsite said: "People are saying nobody is safe whether in a big or small campsite.

"We don't necessarily know everyone who comes in and out of here and don't feel in a position to protect customers 100 per cent, even if we employ a security agent. It's hard as people are coming and going all the time. We can't possibly know everyone."